Notice of Availability of the Draft Environmental Assessment for the Los Alamos County

Reservoir Road Project, New Mexico, HMGP-DR-4199-NM Project #26

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Interested persons are hereby notified that Los Alamos County has applied to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), through the New Mexico Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, for Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) funding under Section 404 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act. FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program provides grants to states and local governments to implement long-term hazard mitigation measures that reduce the loss of life and property due to natural disasters and to enable mitigation measures to be implemented during the immediate recovery from a disaster.

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FEMA proposes to provide funding to Los Alamos County to improve the road connecting Los Alamos Canyon Reservoir to West Road. The project would include a 1.2-acre staging area for equipment storage. The Proposed Action would include installation of approximately 3,964 feet of gabion retaining walls, 299 feet of riprap slope protection along the road, each built to NMDOT standards and a concrete low-water crossing. Installation of the gabion and riprap slope protection as well as the low-water crossing would occur within the County’s 40-foot-wide road easement. Vegetation next to the road where gabion retaining walls and riprap slope protection would be installed would be cleared by hand. Upon completion of the project, the staging area would be revegetated to New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT) standards with modifications provided by United States Forest Service (USFS).

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A draft Environmental Assessment (EA) has been prepared to assess the potential impacts of the proposed action and alternatives on the human and natural environment in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) regulations implementing NEPA (40 CFR Parts 1500 – 1508), FEMA’s Instruction 108-1-1 for implementing NEPA, the National Historic Preservation Act, Executive Order 11988, Executive Order 11990, and 44 CFR Part 9. The draft EA evaluates alternatives that provide for compliance with applicable environmental laws. The alternatives evaluated include (1) no action; (2) the proposed action described above.

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The draft EA is available for review and comment at Los Alamos County Building, 1000 Central Ave, Los Alamos, NM 87544, Monday-Friday, 8-5 pm. An electronic version of the draft EA can be requested from Dorothy Cook, FEMA Region 6, at dorothy.cook@fema.dhs.gov or viewed on FEMA’s website at www.fema.gov/resource-document-library or on the Los Alamos County website at http://ladpu.com/EA-ReservoirRoad (view links below).
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The comment period will end 30 days from the initial notice publication date on August 15, 2019. Written comments on the draft EA can be mailed, emailed, or faxed to Dorothy Cook, Senior Environmental Specialist, FEMA Region 6, FEMA Region 6, 800 N Loop 288, Denton, TX 76209; Email: dorothy.cook@ fema.dhs.gov; or Fax: 940-297-0152. If no substantive comments are received, the draft EA will become final and a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) will be issued for the project. Substantive comments will be addressed as appropriate in the final documents.